Dental professionals routinely manipulate the gingiva of a patient for a variety reasons related to dental surgery, preventive maintenance, and aesthetics. For example, some dental patients can be unhappy with the post dental surgery aesthetics or natural aesthetics of their smile, including the presence of excess gingiva and/or unsymmetrical gingival margins and lines. Dental professionals sometimes address this concern by cutting the gingiva to remove excess gingiva and/or to improve the symmetry of the gingival lines, thereby increasing the general aesthetics of the patient's smile. The cutting of the gingiva is performed by hand (e.g., using a laser or a knife). Such techniques are inherently prone to human error and may not accurately reproduce a pre-operation plan incorporating the desired end result.
There arises a need in the art to provide a guide arrangement, and systems and methods for accurately allowing the manipulation of gingiva based on a pre-operation plan.